St Machar Academy, Aberdeen
St Machar Academy is a secondary school for pupils in Aberdeen.
- Attendance
- 89.2%
Data last updated 25 Oct 2026
St Machar Academy in detail
School in Scotland
St Machar Academy is a local authority school in Scotland. Scottish schools are inspected by Education Scotland rather than Ofsted, and Scotland does not publish school-by-school exam league tables.
In the 2025 pupil census it had 1032 pupils and 11.9 pupils per teacher.
44% of pupils are registered for free school meals, 73% of pupils have an additional support need recorded and 33% speak English as an additional language.
22% of its pupils live in Scotland's most deprived fifth of areas and 5% in the least deprived fifth (SIMD).
Attendance was 89.2% in 2024/25, and 40.1% of pupils were persistently absent (missing 10% or more of sessions).
The 2026 school estate survey rated its buildings' condition as satisfactory (B) and their suitability for teaching as poor (C); the school was 102% full.
92% of pupils who left in 2024/25 went on to a positive destination - further or higher education, training, work or volunteering, against 93% for its "virtual comparator", a matched group of pupils with similar backgrounds from across Scotland.
Compared with nearby schools
The nearest other state secondary schools to St Machar Academy are Aberdeen Grammar School (1.3 miles), Bridge Of Don Academy (1.4 miles), Northfield Academy (1.4 miles) and Harlaw Academy (1.6 miles).
Aberdeen Grammar SchoolBridge Of Don AcademyNorthfield AcademyHarlaw Academy
Getting there
The nearest railway station is Aberdeen Rail Station, about 1.6 miles away in a straight line.
10 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Sir Duncan Rice Library (opposite), 280 metres away.
Primary schools nearby
The primary schools closest to St Machar Academy are Kittybrewster School (0.2 miles), Riverbank School (0.3 miles), St Peter's RC School (0.5 miles) and Sunnybank School (0.5 miles). In Scotland, secondary places normally follow the catchment area, and each secondary school has associated primary schools; Aberdeen City publishes both.
Kittybrewster SchoolRiverbank SchoolSt Peter's RC SchoolSunnybank School
Sources: Scottish Government school statistics: pupil census, attendance and absence, school estate, leaver destinations (OGL); NaPTAN (Department for Transport)
Key Information
Scottish GovernmentInspection
HM Inspectorate of Education (Education Scotland) last published an inspection of St Machar Academy in April 2026.
- 1.3 Leadership of changesatisfactory
- 2.3 Learning, teaching and assessmentsatisfactory
- 3.1 Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusionweak
- 3.2 Raising attainment and achievementsatisfactory
HMIE grades on a six-point scale: unsatisfactory, weak, satisfactory, good, very good, excellent.
Source: HM Inspectorate of Education (Education Scotland), Open Government Licence.
About
St Machar Academy is an Aberdeen City Council secondary school on St Machar Drive. It is near King's College and St Machar's Cathedral.
From Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
At a Glance
No
Boarding
No
Nursery
No
Special Measures
Keep up with St Machar Academy
Getting There
Bus Stops
Safety and surroundings
Road collisions within 500 m (2021 to 2025)
- Collisions
- 9
- Fatal
- 1
- Serious
- 3
- Children hurt
- 4
Within 500 m of the school's mapped location, police recorded 9 road collisions in which someone was injured in 2021 to 2025: 1 fatal, 3 serious and 5 slight.
4 children aged 0 to 15 were hurt: 3 on foot and 1 in a vehicle or otherwise.
3 of the collisions happened on a weekday between 08:00 and 09:30 or 14:45 and 16:30, holidays included.
The typical figure for schools in Aberdeen City is 3 (the median across 69 schools, same distance and years).
Serious and slight counts use the Department for Transport's severity adjustment, which allows for changes in how police forces record injuries; they are estimates, rounded to whole numbers. Distances are in a straight line. Source: Department for Transport, Road Safety Data (STATS19), Open Government Licence v3.0.
Commute and house prices
Feeder Primary Schools
Primary schools that likely feed into this school, based on proximity
St Machar Academy
Showing 10 of 14 linked schools
Questions parents ask about St Machar Academy
When was St Machar Academy last inspected?
HM Inspectorate of Education (Education Scotland) last published an inspection of St Machar Academy in April 2026. Inspectors evaluated leadership of change as satisfactory; learning, teaching and assessment as satisfactory; ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion as weak and raising attainment and achievement as satisfactory, on a six-point scale from unsatisfactory to excellent.
What is the catchment area for St Machar Academy?
Scottish schools have catchment (zoned) areas, and St Machar Academy is no exception: children living in its zone are normally given a place there automatically. Families who want a different school make a placing request to Aberdeen City. Aberdeen City publishes the zone boundary.
How do I apply to St Machar Academy?
If you live in St Machar Academy's catchment zone your child is normally allocated a place automatically, and Aberdeen City will write to you. To ask for a place here from outside the zone, make a placing request to Aberdeen City - requests usually open in November and close in mid-March for the following August.
How many road collisions happen near St Machar Academy?
Within 500 m of the school's mapped location, police recorded 9 road collisions in which someone was injured in 2021 to 2025: 1 fatal, 3 serious and 5 slight. 4 children aged 0 to 15 were hurt: 3 on foot and 1 in a vehicle or otherwise. 3 of the collisions happened on a weekday between 08:00 and 09:30 or 14:45 and 16:30, holidays included. The typical figure for schools in Aberdeen City is 3 (the median across 69 schools, same distance and years).
Where is St Machar Academy?
St Machar Academy is at St Machar Drive, Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3YZ.
Source: Department for Transport, Road Safety Data (STATS19)